Compiled by Alex Pena ~ ‘Catalyst’: “to spark, to ignite, energize, mobilize; something that accelerates a reaction (DDI)." Thought-provoking & motivational quotes and stories for you to read, reflect on and move forward in making creative and positive changes in your life.

“Be daring, be different, be impractical be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the common place, the slaves of the ordinary.” (Cecil Beaton)

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“Jesus didn’t die an extravagant death so that we could live mediocre and comfortable lives.” (Jarrid Wilson, Jesus Swagger: Break Free from Poser Christianity)

Like this:

“One of the most significant negative habits we should be aware of is that of constantly allowing our mind to run off into the future. Perhaps we got this from our parents. Carried away by our worries, we’re unable to live fully and happily in the present. Deep down, we believe we can’t really be happy just yet—that we still have a few more boxes to be checked off before we can really enjoy life.” (Thich Nhat Hanh)

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“The final meditation on followership from Ira Chaleff’s book, “The Courageous Follower” is: ‘Courage always exists in the present. What can I do today?’

I am convinced that if more people would assume responsibility for asking themselves each and every day, “what can I do today to make a difference?” that our organizations would experience radical transformation.

Most of your peers are playing it safe. They don’t want to stand up, stand out, and risk rejection or challenge. They are content with doing just enough to get by, and by their own behavior our leaders encourage the perpetuation of this pattern.

We can do better, and because we can, we should. Without courage, this is all just rhetoric. Courage has to start today and it has to start with you.

You have a lot more power than you think. People are watching.” (Brett L. Simmons)

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“As we go about our daily lives, it is important to remember that we always find what we’re looking for. If you set out today thinking that this is going to be a bad day, shortly things will begin to order themselves to meet your expectation. Conversely, if you set out with an expectation of greatness, this can be one of the greatest days of your life.” (Jim Stovall)

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“What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.” (Anthony Robbins)

“Imperfection also makes growth possible. Like it or not, the main way we learn is by falling flat on our face, just as we did when we first learned to walk. Our parents may tell us a million times not to touch that hot stove, but it’s only after we actually burn ourselves that we really understand why it’s not such a great idea. The learning opportunities provided by failure can actually help us to achieve our dreams. In the words of restaurateur Wolfgang Puck, ‘I learned more from the one restaurant that didn’t work than from all the ones that were successes.’ Yes, failure is frustrating. But it’s also temporary and eventually yields wisdom. We can think of failure as part of life’s apprenticeship. If we were perfect and had all the answers, we’d never get to ask questions, and we wouldn’t be able to discover anything new.” (Kristen Neff, Self-Compassion)

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“The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.” (Thomas Carlyle)

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“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” (Charles Bukowski)

Like this:

“A few years ago I ran into an old acquaintance that I hadn’t seen for awhile. Our short conversation confirmed just why I hadn’t seen him in awhile – and wouldn’t see him again soon if I could help it. I started off with, “Hey Phil. How’s it going?” His response was, “Oh, you know; same crap, different day.” His expletive-laced language was much spicier than that, but you get the picture. He then proceeded to proudly pile up the most recent crap in his life and invited me to wallow in it with him.

Our world does have an abundance of crap. There’s lots of injustice, inequality, and unfairness. The crap that hits the fan in life is often not evenly distributed. But we get to decide whether to stand in it or not. We decide if we want today to be crappy or happy. If we walk around with our “crap glasses” on, we’ll see lots of it. The more crap we look for, the more crap we see. The more crap we see, the more we look for. My friend, fellow performance improvement author/speaker, and psychologist, Peter Jensen calls this ‘opticalrectumitis,’ which he loosely translates as ‘having a shi…(crappy) outlook on life.’” (Jim Clemmer)

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“My father-in-law uses an expression, ‘Attitude is everything.’ It’s his non-confrontational way of saying, ‘Stop complaining.’ When my father-in-law says, ‘Attitude is everything,’ it isn’t just an admonition — it’s a prescription. Right now, we are experiencing a massive explosion of creativity (and change) … .

Businesses (and businesspeople) that can find the excitement in that have a fighting chance of surviving the transition and thriving. Those who choose to fight the future and pretend the old ways are coming back, well, you may be the subject of your own TV series one day. But it’s likely to be on the History Channel.” (Robert Safian, Fast Company Magazine)

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“I used to say, “I sure hope things will change.

Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change.” (Jim Rohn)

Like this:

“We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk.” (Thomas Moore)

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“When you understand that what most people really, really want is simply to feel good about themselves, and when you realize that with just a few well-chosen words you can help virtually anyone on the planet instantly achieve this, you begin to realize just how simple life is, how powerful you are, and that love is the key. (signed)The Universe.” (Notes from the Universe, Mike Dooley, 9.1.14)

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“One day someone is going to hug you so tight that all of your broken pieces will stick back together.” (Unknown Author)

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“Some people say life is hard. It is not.

Some people say it’s easy. It is not.

Some say it’s lonely, tricky, or a test. It is not.

Life is only a reflection of whatever you say.

What say you?

Pass it on. (signed) The Universe.” (Notes from The Universe, Mike Dooley, January 28, 2015)

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“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” (Henry David Thoreau)

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“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.” (William Arthur Ward)

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“And at the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy and your eyes sparkling.” (Shanti)

Like this:

“Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.” (Paul Tillich)

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“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” (Walt Disney)

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“Be somebody nobody thought you could be.” (William Chapman)

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“It is important that you get clear for yourself that your only access to impacting life is action. The world does not care what you intend, how committed you are, how you feel or what you think, and certainly it has no interest in what you want and don’t want. Take a look at life as it is lived and see for yourself that the world only moves for you when you act.” (Werner Erhard)

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“Accepting responsibility for your life means understanding that YOU are responsible for creating the life you want to live. If you don’t do it, who else will? This is a tremendously empowering realization, or at least it was for me. When I realized I was responsible for myself, I stopped making excuses and I stopped waiting for others to help me. Instead, I started changing my life. I’ll say it again: YOU can decide what you want your life to be about.” (Ryan Murdock)

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“What’s the good of living if you don’t try a few things?” (Charles M. Shulz)

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“We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them.” (Anaїs Nin)

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“Those of us who know not the secret of properly regulating our own existence on this tumultuous sea of foolish troubles which we call life are constantly in a state of misery while vainly trying to appear happy and contented. We stagger in the attempt to keep our moral equilibrium, and see forerunners of the tempest in every cloud that floats on the horizon. Yet there is joy and beauty in the roll of billows as they sweep outward toward eternity. Why not enter into their spirit.” (The Book of Tea, Okakura Kakuzō)

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“You are someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. nd that in my view is a serious illness. God chose you to be different. Why are you disappointing God with this kind of attitude?” (Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die)

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“When it comes to being gentle, start with yourself. Don’t get upset with your imperfections. Being disappointed by failure is understandable, but it shouldn’t turn into bitterness or spite directed at yourself. It’s a great mistake because it leads nowhere – to get angry because you are angry; upset at being upset; disappointed because you are disappointed.” (St. Frances de Sales)

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“For as long as a dream lives inside of you, there’s a plan for its time in space. Trust me. (signed) The Universe.” (Notes from the Universe, Mike Dooley, May 20, 2013)

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“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” (William Shakespeare)

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“It occurs to me that the peculiarity of most things we think of as fragile is how tough they truly are. There were tricks we did with eggs, as children, to show how they were, in reality, tiny load – bearing marble halls; while the beat of the wings of a butterfly in the right place, we are told, can create a hurricane across an ocean. Hearts may break, but hearts are the toughest of muscles, able to pump for a lifetime, seventy times a minute, and scarcely falter along the way. Even dreams, the most delicate and intangible of things, can prove remarkable difficult to kill.” (Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman)

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The Problem with Problems -

We have limits.There are challenges, limited resources, people or organizations working against you. Your knee hurts, the boss is a jerk, the systems are down.

We have opportunities.There are opportunities, new sources of leverage and ideas just waiting to be embraced. You can share something, give something, make something better. There are always limits, and there are always opportunities. The ones we rehearse and focus on are the ones that shape our attitude and our actions. How many times a day do you think about or announce the limits you face, the people who cannot be trusted, the problems that are weighing you down?

The problem with problems is that they always keep us from focusing on opportunities, on a chance to contribute and to make something better. Focus on our opportunities doesn’t mean the problems don’t exist, it merely means that we are far more likely to do something that matters.

Gratitude and opportunity create more of the same.” (Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog, 11.27.14)

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“I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want.” (George B. Shaw)

Like this:

“We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the sunlight that makes life possible, to the gravity that glues us to an earth that would otherwise send us spinning off into space, or the atoms of which we are made and on whose stability we fundamentally depend. Except for children (who don’t know enough not to ask the important questions), few of us spend much time wondering why nature is the way it is; where the cosmos came from, or whether it was always here; if time will one day flow back backward and effects precede causes; or whether there are ultimate limits to what humans can know. There are even children, and I have met some of them, who want to know what a black hole looks like; what is the smallest piece of matter; why we remember the past and not the future; how it, if there was chaos early, that there is, apparently, order today; and why there is a universe.” (Carl Sagan)

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“Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.” (William A. Ward)

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“You are not stuck where you are unless you decide to be.” (Wayne W. Dyer)

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“It is not very complicated. Each person has inside the individual a basic decency and goodness. If he or she listens to it and acts on it, one is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. But it takes courage.” (Pablo Casals)

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“Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.” (Rabindranath Tagore)